Beyond a Joke...

[Robby]

Well, I am getting a bit sick of all this rubbish... And I can see both points...
However being an active member of this forum since when it was just a baby, I think I can give a general member perspective..
I for one do not Spam until a couple of posts in jest yesterday! I guess that's one of the reasons my post count is still well below 1000. I hope that when I post it is contructive!

However I enjoy reading the odd bit of "so called" Spam. Just because it isn't astronomy related doesn't mean it should be removed or banned.
Recently Mike changed the name (against my wished I might add) of this site to "The Australian Amature Astronomy Community"....
Ok, what is a community in this sence?
I guess it is a buch of people coming together to share a similar interest or passion. I belong to a number of Astronomical communities...
When I get together with my "other" astronomical communities (on-line and in real life) we do way more than discuss Astronomy!
- We tell jokes & have a laugh
- We take the mickey out of each other
- We even eat pie sometimes and talk about movies.
- And yes we do talk Astronomy...

My point being, there is nothing wrong with the odd joke or spam thread in General chat. Hey it's actually often very good light relief when compared to some of the in-depth astro talk that goes on.
We have (had) the balance pretty right...

Now the moderators may just be following rules, but the heavy handedness of late is over the top... All it does is infuriate good memebers and lead to a backlash, in excess spam, which seems to be happenning.
Even I have been tempted to start a couple of joke threads.

The is nothing wrong with having one or two threads (out of probably 30 active astro threads) for spam and jokes etc. YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ THEM and it is contained, rather than crap finding it's way into astro threads as part of a backlash to closed spam threads.

Balance people. I'm sure none of this would have happenned if the "Official Lostock Spam Thread" was not closed. We'd all still be a happy bunch.

Anyway, if this place is to continue as a community then it needs to function like one!
It is the members who make it what it is, and it will be the members (not the moderators) who will ultimately decide it's future.

Keep it real
Cheers

[davidpretorius]

i agree with the balance robby, but i am getting too fed up now to bother........

[Robert_T]

Hi Robby, I'm with you. I'm a bit of a novice to online forums, and it's a learning experience for me as well no doubt as many others, as to where the boundaries and social niceties as to what's acceptable and what's not should lie. IIS is bringing together a very diverse group of people with an enormous range of life perpectives and experience so it's inevitable that there will be different attitudes and opinions on this. Tend to think General Chat is just that and can't imagine why anyone would care what people post in there and so passionately in some cases. Think you hit the nail of the head - YOU DON"T HAVE TO READ THEM. A bit o' fun, a bit o' fact, live and let live and all o' that.

cheers,

[space lover]

A bit of spam wouldn't hurt anyone. As long as its not over done, I believe its fine. So I'm agreeing with you Robby.

[Stu]

I agree Robert T.

But the problem is this site apeals to a different demographic than normal online forum. The people in astronomy communities can be a lot older and sometimes less computer literate (I'm not being nasty, it's just 99% of forums are for teenages or IT people).

A lot of people here are in their first forum, which also applies to moderators who have only known life within iceinspace. Heavy handedness and blant disregard for forum tiltes and posting guidelines leads to the stuff that is happening now.

I realise there is no moderator training coarses but you have to at least allow some humour that is logical. All other forums allow this full stop.

Astrogeek went over board and was deal with. But he went over board because other people got trigger happy. Why can't we be tolerant. ESPECIALLY if the title of a thread indicates that it is only for fun. Spam is something that is unwanted. There is no such thing as spamming a spam thread.

If the rating on a movie indicates that you might be offened and you still watch it. It's you that made that choice, no one else.

[Exfso]

You are right on the money Robby, exactly my thoughts.

:2thumbs:

[Stu]

Just to add, the new forum guidelines indicate that there should be a valid reason for a post but don't state that "light heartedness" is not a valid reason. Dave P.'s thread was not offensive, just funny.

[stinky]

I for one was in stitches of laughter last night - had a great belly laugh. It was just sad to see that some people clearly don't know when to lighten up. I saw nothing offensive - and even if i had it would have been MY choice to read it. Please don't limit my choices.

Moderation is a dificult task at the best of times. But moderation should be moderate - not simply judge, jury and executioner rolled into one. I believe last night would have been easily resolved with a little humour, a little patience, and a little understanding.

As a newb here I think it's great learning about astronomy and having a laugh thrown in along the way great! People have hobbies for FUN - take that out of the equation and it's no longer a hobby.

Steady as she goes....

[fringe_dweller]

Very well said Robby, thats right people seem to forget that amateur astronomers try to be well rounded people just like everyone else, otherwise we would just be boring freakazoids!
I hope you dont mind me responding to all these threads here.
I used to get upset when my posts and threads were seemingly arbitrarily deleted - but you have got to get it into your heads THIS IS A PRIVATELY OWNED FORUM you cant get past that point - everything begins and ends with that fact. period.
If you think it would be easy to run and maintain a forum of this size with the heavy image content - then you are DREAMING I'm sorry - it would be a very serious comittment.
I too wonder Paul how many of these anonymous complaints people actually post and contribute - I keep thinking of the two old guys/hecklers in the muppets theatre tv show that sat in the private box heaping abuse on the performers after the fact.
As for the serious side of the amateur astronomy in this forum - from my point of view I have seen many great serious threads just lay there dying like flopping fish out of water from lack of interest - u can hear the crickets chirping - maybe these complainers could join in with the serious stuff they so crave ocassionaly?
it seems to me this site leans very heavily to the equipment side of things - if it isnt about bragging what shiny new piece of gear, eyepiece, scope, camera ect. aquired or the forthcoming acquisition of - or something to do with webcam imaging of planets - or organising a get together (as much as i like all this stuff) - there isnt that much interest outside of that - that doesnt seem very well rounded astronomy site to me! . In fact it is very heavy on one side, everyone is on the equipment side of the boat.
There have always been threads on outside interests in this forum - in fact there is less than there used to be - threads like whats your favourite tv show ect. were very popular at one point
I rememember Mike saying once that he modelled this forum on the BAUT forum connected with Universe Today - I started visiting that forum a bit more on Mike's endorsement - and i have to say they talk about anything and everything in there - no holds barred free for all - nothing is sacred! just check out their million threads on ID!! even made me blush!!!

[jjjnettie]

I used to belong to a womens only support forum, note WOMENS ONLY. Unfortunately the moderators were only there from 8pm to 12pm, other times we were on our own. The crap we had to put up with while the moderators were away was awful. Men would join making lewd suggestions and played on the fears that we were there to get support for. I eventually left that particular forum. Not enough moderation.
I feel that Ice In Space is a safe place for me to frequent. The gentleman and ladies that are here are well mannered and don't mind a bit of fun. I like that. I wouldn't go along to our overnight get togethers if I didn't feel safe.
I concider this my online home away from home. But sometimes the other family members here can get a bit naughty and cheeky. Discipline is sometimes necessary, and a 12 hour ban might be an alternative to a total ban. I mean if your kids are naughty, you don't toss them out of home completely do you? Some time spent in coventary to think over their misdeeds usually does the trick and doesn't leave any permenant bitterness behind.